What we know about the south Austin homicide, shooting spree suspect
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Austin police say the man who went on a shooting spree on the city’s south side Wednesday afternoon is also the suspect in the deadly shooting of Christian Meroney, 32, at the Post South Lamar apartments earlier this week.
Charles Wilson Curry Jr., 29, is currently in the Travis County Jail charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and murder after police arrested him at the Post South Lamar apartments Wednesday afternoon. Records show Curry lives at the Post South Lamar apartments.
Education
Curry went to Vanderbilt University from 2007-2011.
Work History
Sources tell KXAN Curry showed up at the Texas State Capitol before the 2017 legislative session looking for work. He was hired as a Senate Sergeant at Arms. Sources say he moved here from Kentucky.
Senator Joan Huffman’s office hired him in November of 2016 for the 2017 legislative session, but he was fired at the end of 2017 session. Huffman’s office confirms he was hired as an employee for the legislative session.
“The crimes alleged are tragic. Senator Huffman and her entire staff grieve for the deceased young man and for his family, and pray for the quick recovery of the other victims,” Huffman’s Chief of Staff, Wroe Jackson, wrote KXAN.
He was then hired by the consulting firm Murphy Nasica, which represents Speaker of the House Joe Straus’ political team. Craig Murphy of the firm tells KXAN Curry was hired as voter contact coordinator for 12 days in September of 2017. He then told them he had a medical issue and disappeared for two weeks. When he came back, he finished another 10 days of trial period but was not hired on. Murphy said Curry “did not meet their standards as a contractor.”
After Murphy Nasica, Curry was hired by Barrage LLC, a vendor working on the campaign of State Rep. Paul Workman. There he was fired for “poor job performance,” Workman’s office tells KXAN.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he was a campaign coordinator in that role. Murphy says Curry exaggerated his LinkedIn profile and was never a campaign coordinator for his firm. “It is simply not true,” said Murphy.
Series of Crimes
Monday, July 9: Christian Meroney was found dead in a hallway at the Post South Lamar apartments at 1:43 p.m. Police say he was shot to death.
Wednesday, July 11:
- 1:58 p.m. A clerk at the Range at Austin at 8301 S. I-35 told police he refused to sell a gun suppressor to a man driving a White Chevrolet Tahoe because the man was “acting very strangely”
- 2:06 p.m. at 8100 I-35 S. northbound frontage road, south of William Cannon Road | A 33-year-old Hispanic woman driving with her three children in the car was shot in the head. She was taken to the hospital with superficial injuries.
- 2:32 p.m. at 1500 S. Lamar Blvd. | Shots fired called, no one was injured
- 2:35 p.m. in the 4000 block of South Lamar Boulevard | A 25-year-old white woman was driving when a bullet entered her vehicle and hit her in the head. The glass also hit her face. She was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
- 2:40 p.m. in the 5300 block Ponciana Drive | Austin police get a 911 call reporting shots were fired sometime between 2:06 and 2:32 p.m. No injuries were reported.
- 5 p.m. at 6300 Bob Wentz Park Rd. | Travis County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call for a man firing shots in the area. No injuries were reported. A witness told police he saw a man get into a boat with a gun before his wife heard the shots.
- 6 p.m. at 1500 South Lamar Blvd. | Curry was arrested by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force.
Austin police say with the help of surveillance video from the first shots fired case, they were able to identify the suspect vehicle by the time the Bob Wentz incident happened. The witnesses and victims told police the vehicle was a white Chevy Tahoe. Police also found Curry was the owner of a boat docked at Bob Wentz.
With the information they had from the July 9 homicide, police started making the connection that the shooting spree could be related. A ballistic test was ordered on the evidence collected at the homicide scene compared to the various shootings and they came back a match.
Map of the Incidents
